My suggestion would be to be ontop of everything before you leave for Mexico. At the time of planning I was in school full time and held a full time job as well as prepping our house to be put on the market for when we leave. Just way to much going on! but I felt reassured by hearing that everything would be fine from other brides and that a lot of everything you can plan down there as well as having the coordinator assure me the same thing. However I also think it would help to be firm and clear on what you expect and to double check that they understand what it is you want.

I originally wanted my reception on the pool deck which I think is the best place to have it, the pool terrace is not private at all from guests and if you have your reception earlier on that means that people will be walking around in and out of the pool since it does not close till 8:00pm. However Seaside Grill was a great place to hold the reception, very private and a bit more sheltered from the wind. As well the washrooms were close by for the guests to access.

What are your locations that you have chosen ?

I wanted to have my reception on the pool deck but its not available, so im having it on the pool terrace!

My reception will be 6.30-9.30, so do you think that will not be private?

Did you have to pay extra to use the Seaside Grill?

I would love to have my reception on the beach. Is that private? Was it really windy?

Hi ladies, back now from my trip. Overall our 2 week stay at Dreams was great. We got upgraded to a preferred room upon arrival with the ocean view and jacuzzi on the balcony (which we never got around to using) room number 2412. On our last 2 days we somehow got upgraded to the presidential suite which was amazing. I dont know how that happened but maybe my not so great wedding experience had something to do with it and my mom complaining about it. Anyways here are the issues that I had for my wedding, hope that it helps others avoid them.

I was told to leave my dress out the day before to get steamed. I recieved it only hours before the wedding and only to open up the garmet bag and realize that the dress was more wrinkled than whne I sent it and it looked like it had been thrown in the washing machine and not pressed at all. I was very disappointed but there was nothing I could do at that point as it was only the hour leading up to the ceremony.

The ceremony was great, short and sweet. Which was perfect on a super super hot day.

Upon arrival we were told that we would be meeting with Gina the day after we arrived. My fiance found this extremely nerve racking and felt like we should make all appointments the day we arrived to get things figured out as soon as possible and that we had plans with family and friends the next days.

We were instructed that we would meet with Yamina on the day we arrived. She was great!!! she handled everything very well. I complained about the confusion of booking over a year in advance and securing soo many people at that time and then also being told at that time that I did not need to make any final decsisions and when I did decide on locations being told that they were already taken. Yamina fixed this issue by allowing me to have my reception at Seaside Grill with no extra cost.Most of my other details were smoothed out with Yamina

The next day I met with Gina and I told her about the decorations that I brought and how I would like them set up. I asked once again how long the table would be as I was having one long table and she showed me the table in the room they had in their back office room and pointed to about half that size. I was confident I brought enough decorations but I also wanted the decorations that they offered with the package. The cylindrical vases with candles in them. She said yes she agreed but said she also did not want the table too full. I explained thats how I would like it and I thought she understood this.She assured me the day of the event I could go down 15 minutes early to check and see what the set up looked like. To my horror the table was about 3x longer than she had indicated and with only the decorations I brought. Well she also scattered on some crystals (which I do not like at all) and these little clear pot-like holders with sand and a fake tealight. Yamina was no where in sight and I had no one to express my concerns to except those who were setting up and had no idea what was going on. Also Yamina had talked me into getting lanterns and instead of hanging from the ceiling as I thought in a nice flowy way, they were fastened in a circle around the ceiling.

We had also asked Gina that while we were taking our photos if there was someone to direct and instruct our guests what to do and where to go. She assured me that she had an assistant who would do this for us.

We had recieved the extra room the night before for the groom. This was great except that he only had it till 4:00pm the next day (the start of our ceremony) This was also the room that he and a couple of guests who stayed at another resort got ready in. He had asked if he was able to have someone move all the belongings (which he placed on the bed) to our regular room before the time was up. After our ceremony he inquired with Gina's assistant about the move of belongings and he said he would check into it. That is when the assistant disappeared for the night. Our guests were lost for what to do with us taking photos and unable to direct our attention to them. So people wandered around, hoping that they would all make it back to our reception location on time. When we asked the assistant to check up on the belongings we did not think that he would be gone for so long.

After the cocktail hour and headed to the reception we saw that the table seating was different from how I imagined. They extracted the bride and groom from the middle of the table and put us both at the head of the table. A set up we did not expect. We were overwhelmed at the time and upset that now we were at end of the table, away from our family. It took so long to come up with a seating chart the first time that we just apologized to our close family and sat at the end of the table with our friends. It takes too long to organize a good seating chart to have done it on the spot

I'm so sorry you had to go through that for your wedding. At least you and your family had a great time together. And you got to stay in the Presidential Suite... Im Jealous!!! Lol

How come no one is crying in their pictures!?!?! i'm ready to cry LOOKING at your pictures!! we went to the courthouse and did a 5 min legal wedding 2 weeks ago before I went to work and i was a cry-baby mess, so I can only assume i'm going to be worse with everyone watching me in Mexico.

How come no one is crying in their pictures!?!?! i'm ready to cry LOOKING at your pictures!! we went to the courthouse and did a 5 min legal wedding 2 weeks ago before I went to work and i was a cry-baby mess, so I can only assume i'm going to be worse with everyone watching me in Mexico.

I wanted to have my reception on the pool deck but its not available, so im having it on the pool terrace!

My reception will be 6.30-9.30, so do you think that will not be private?

Did you have to pay extra to use the Seaside Grill?

I would love to have my reception on the beach. Is that private? Was it really windy?

Sorry lots of questions

It might be private but during my stay at the resort I found that the resort staff were very reluctant to quiet down rowdy guests. There was even one ceremony that was going on and drunken men were screaming and yelling during the ceremony and once it ended walked through the guests in their wet bathing suits to get to the beach bar. And the hotel staff did not say anything to them or redirect them to go in a different direction. If it is a nice day out aI can say that people will be walking around poolside and in swimsuits and possibly even in that pool.

We did not have to pay extra for the Seaside Grill because of the location confusion. She just had to make sure that the resturant would be closed that night and available to use.

I'm not sure about how private the beach is for a ceremony as I dont think I saw any receptions there. It was extremely windy the whole time I was there and the wind did not die down at night.

Questions are no problem

This is the pool terrace where all the circus event stuff is set up. Sorry I cant find my picture of a wedding that was set up at the time.

How come no one is crying in their pictures!?!?! i'm ready to cry LOOKING at your pictures!! we went to the courthouse and did a 5 min legal wedding 2 weeks ago before I went to work and i was a cry-baby mess, so I can only assume i'm going to be worse with everyone watching me in Mexico.

Thanks so much

I had the resort do my hair and makeup. She did my hair well based on the picture that I had, she spoke little english so it was hard to get across the changes that I wanted, but overall the hair was good. The makeup however I did not have a picture and told her just a light smokey eye and she made me look like a barbie doll, so I just said thank you tipped her and fixed my makeup myself in my own room the way I like it. I did bring some of my own makeup because I felt she might not have my skin tone and colours I liked. They also are not the most sanitary when it comes to makeup, the brushes might have been cleaned but she just dipped them back in the makeup after putting them on my face. So if your one of those people who cares about hygiene I would bring your own makeup.

I used Anel from the resort photo centre as recommended on here. She was great to work with lots of good shots. I got shots for the whole ceremony and of our guests and us. I think in total an hour. I'm not sure if it was cut short or not by me passing out from the heat in my dress or not. It was really hot like 38C

Haha ya I wanted to cry so much while walking but I held it in because I knew once I let it go I wouldn't be able to stop and maybe my makeup would run. A few people cried, I know my mom definatly did and a friend. You will probably while walking down the aisle, I think thats a for sure!

I had the resort do my hair and makeup. She did my hair well based on the picture that I had, she spoke little english so it was hard to get across the changes that I wanted, but overall the hair was good. The makeup however I did not have a picture and told her just a light smokey eye and she made me look like a barbie doll, so I just said thank you tipped her and fixed my makeup myself in my own room the way I like it. I did bring some of my own makeup because I felt she might not have my skin tone and colours I liked. They also are not the most sanitary when it comes to makeup, the brushes might have been cleaned but she just dipped them back in the makeup after putting them on my face. So if your one of those people who cares about hygiene I would bring your own makeup.

I used Anel from the resort photo centre as recommended on here. She was great to work with lots of good shots. I got shots for the whole ceremony and of our guests and us. I think in total an hour. I'm not sure if it was cut short or not by me passing out from the heat in my dress or not. It was really hot like 38C

Haha ya I wanted to cry so much while walking but I held it in because I knew once I let it go I wouldn't be able to stop and maybe my makeup would run. A few people cried, I know my mom definatly did and a friend. You will probably while walking down the aisle, I think thats a for sure!